We share the platforms across consumer, small business and real estate that allow for retail investors.

For online platforms there is considerable cost to be able to accept retail dollars. This is one of the reasons that Lending Club and Prosper were the only two platforms that allowed for retail investor participation for many years. Since many firms are just a few years old it’s much easier to target accredited individual and institutional investors due to the capital those investors have to deploy. However, there are now online lending platforms spanning almost every lending vertical that are open to retail investors. Below we share all of the opportunities retail investors should be aware of.

Lending Club – Consumer Lending

Lending Club allows retail investors access to consumer loans and has the most loan volume out of any other platform on this list. Investors can purchase fractions of loans starting at $25 and so can build a diversified portfolio with a relatively small investment. Borrowers are given loan grades from A-G and investors can decide which grades they would like to invest in. Lending Club advertises historical returns between 5%-7% with 99% of investors with over 100 loans achieving positive returns. In addition to the primary market, investors can buy and sell loans on Lending Club’s secondary market FOLIOfn which provides liquidity to investors.

Lending Club’s state and financial suitability conditions can be found on their website.

Prosper – Consumer Lending

Prosper’s platform is similar to Lending Club’s. Investors can purchase consumer loans ranging from grades AA-HR. One difference is that Prosper shut down their secondary market recently which means investors must hold notes to their maturity once purchased. Estimated returns vary from 3.83% to 13.04%

Out of all the service providers in the marketplace lending industry Orchard has the broadest set of data on online lenders here in the US. Orchard serves as a platform to connect originators looking for capital with institutional investors who are seeking opportunities in the space and they have data feeds to many of the leading originators. Today, they released their Q2 industry report focusing on consumer unsecured lending. Although Orchard doesn’t break down the originators included, the report should serve as a view of market level trends as opposed to trends by any one originator.

Originations has been the hottest topic as of late as Lending Club and Prosper shared their Q2 results. More broadly the report highlights originations down approximately 34% from Q1 2016 and down 16% from Q2 2015. Below is a chart of quarterly originations since Q3 2013.

Orchard also shared that 2014 vintage charge offs have increased compared to some previous vintages. Although we saw some pockets of underperformance last year with Lending Club, Orchard also notes that this trend is also in part due to the increase of subprime loan origination platforms.

The final piece of the report shares data on interest rates, both average interest rates and interest rates by loan size. Q2 2016 saw a significant increase in average borrower interest rate to 16.4%, up from 15.5% in Q1 2016. The increasing average interest rate is not surprising given the fact that both Lending Club and Prosper have raised rates several times over the last few quarters and we can assume some other lenders are doing the same to attract investors. However it is surprising to see a 72 bps drop in average interest rates in Q1 2016. We see the trend of increasing average rate first begin in Q2 2015 and continues to increase quarter over quarter until the drop off in Q1 2016.

Conclusion

We are well aware of trends from leading originators Lending Club and Prosper. Lending Club is a public company so we have insight into their operations and Prosper files quarterly with the SEC even though they aren’t public. However, there are many other originators who are private companies and do not share information publicly. This report from Orchard gives us a broader perspective of what trends are happening in the unsecured consumer lending market. You can view the full report on Orchard’s website.

At 23 years old, Paul Gu has attended Yale, been awarded a $100,000 grant as a Thiel fellow, co-founded Upstart, attracted millions in venture capital money, and is earning a 6-figure salary as Head of Product. Wow – what were you doing at 23?

Surprisingly, Paul found it nearly impossible to get a good rate for a loan. The banks wouldn’t lend, Prosper rejected him, and Lending Club offered him a loan with an interest rate in the high 20s. What gives? Using traditional credit scoring metrics, Paul has less than 3 years of credit history and is deemed high-risk.

Paul and his team at Upstart came to the realization that he is not alone and that there is an entire category of select “thin file” borrowers who have been overlooked by the system. These are recent graduates who have entered into the workforce with very promising career trajectories.

In addition to credit and salary data, Upstart uses education-related variables to predict a borrower’s earning potential, employability and their propensity to repay the loan.

“We want to support those who just finished their education and are starting a job,” said Girouard, “In addition to looking at [your credit] and your income, we look at where you went to college, what your area of study was, how you performed academically.”

Since early 2013 Upstart has originated $3.5 million worth of income-sharing agreements to 309 people backed by 2,192 lenders. Upstart has used their intelligence in the income sharing business to formulate their new product that is launching today.

Introducing the Upstart Marketplace

Starting today, Upstart has launched a marketplace much like Lending Club and Prosper to offer three-year standard term loans available in all 50 states. Borrowers can request loans of $5,000 up to $25,000, and interest rates can range from 6.5% up to 20% APR.

Upstart’s new product crosses the boundaries of consumer and student loans, which means borrowers can use the funds for pretty much anything: to pay off credit cards, retire student loans, or pay tuition for a course.

Upstart’s investor marketplace will be available to accredited investors only and will offer fractional ownership in $100 increments. As you can see in the screen shot below, Upstart loans are given a letter grade and interest rate along with a progress chart to monitor funding levels. Investors can view details of each loan, but will not be able to see the identity of the borrowers.

Upstart also levels the field among individual and institutional investors by making all loans available on equal terms. In contrast to Lending Club and Prosper, Girouard said, all investors have access to every published loan since there is only a single pool of loans. Upstart’s platform offers lenders the ability to create filters for loans in which they’re interested. The investor, then, can automatically make a bid for those types of loans as they become available.

“Investors can set up as many rules as they want,” such as setting the maximum amount, risk grade of the loan, or even how the loan is (claimed to be) used, according to Girouard.

Borrower Acquisition Strategy

“We’ll have a steady flow of borrowers,” he continued. Upstart already has partnered with 13 coding bootcamps, which normally aren’t eligible for education loans, in the United States.

Borrowers, once verified and approved, can receive funds within 7 days, and can opt to defer their first payment for 3 or 6 months.

Aside from being able to discover early prime investments, Upstart has also structured itself to bolster loan repayment by not imposing fees for early repayment, and by educating borrowers on their finances and on how to improve their credit.

This education push has already paid off for Upstart’s investments, where they’ve “seen 3,056 unique repayments to backers in 14 months without a single default.”

“We understand that our borrowers are recent graduates, so we’re adding an educational component,” said Girouard.

Upstart is Well Positioned for A Borrower’s Life Cycle

Upstart is using educational data in a new way to bring something unique to market. They are able to expand the prime borrower market by uncovering a large overlooked pocket of borrowers. They are also in a great position to establish themselves early with borrowers who will need credit for many of life’s major purchases like a new car or a new home. While nothing has been announced, we can see how Upstart may be in a position to expand their offerings to other lending categories over time.

Paul Gu will be speaking at LendIt on May 6, and his panel will be available by webcast. We hope that he posts his loan request on Upstart. We will be the first in line to fund him!

Correction: The above post misidentified Paul Gu’s title. He is the Head of Product at Upstart. Also, Paul attended Yale University and has not graduated.

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The Lend Academy team loves peer to peer lending and our staff have all invested their own personal money in one or more of the platforms. Lend Academy Media is part of Cardinal Rose Group which also owns LendIt, the leading industry conference, and has a majority interest in NSR Invest.